Markets were mixed as GDP data came in better than expected, the
Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy decision had no
surprises, and the situations in Gaza and Ukraine remained
unsettled.

First, the scoreboard:

Dow: 16,880.36, -31.8, (0.2%)

S&P 500: 1,970.07, +0.1, (+0.01%)

Nasdaq: 4,462.90, +20.2, (0.4%)

And now, the top stories on
Wednesday:

1. The Bureau of Economic
Analysis released
its initial estimate for second quarter
GDP, which showed that the economy expanded
4% on an annualized basis during the quarter. First
quarter GDP was also revised up to contracting 2.1%, better than
the 2.9% contraction that the last reading indicated. Following
the report, Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Bank of Tokyo
Mitsubishi UFJ said, "Apart from the inventories issue, is it a
real 4% or is it a mirage? The consumer is back... Things
can’t go too far wrong if the consumer is out shopping.
It was a cold winter and heating and housing expenditures added
0.7 to growth in the first quarter and now subtracted 0.4 in the
second quarter... Car sales added 0.4 to the 4.0% GDP and should
have with car sales shooting higher to a 16.9 million normal
annual rate of sales in June. If the Fed had car sales on the
dashboard they would raise rates right now."

2. The Federal Reserve's
Federal Open Market Committee released its
latest monetary policy decision, with the FOMC taking
another $10 billion off its monthly asset purchases and keeping
interest rates between 0%-0.25%. The FOMC's
announcement, which was not accompanied by a press conference
from Fed Chair Janet Yellen, showed that the Committee believes,
"a range of labor market indicator suggests that there
remains significant underutilization of labor
resources." Following the Fed's announcement,
Steven Englander at Citi said, the Fed is, for the first time,
giving strong indications that it's moving towards hitting both
its labor and inflation targets.

3. While the headline GDP
number far outpaced the 3% that was expected by Wall Street
economists, two concerns were lurking below the
surface. Primarily, as
BI's Rob Wile noted, a large build in inventories added 1.66%
to Q2 GDP. Inventories are typically one of the most volatile
components of GDP, and the BEA itself noted that buildups in
inventories can signal future cutbacks in production, while
inventory shortages could signal future production increases. The
GDP report also contained a number of revisions to past reports,
notably a
reduction in GDP for the period spanning 2011-2013 to 2%
growth from 2.2%.

4. Also in economic news,
ADP's
private payroll report for July showed that U.S. companies
added 218,000 jobs in July, fewer than the 230,000
expected by economists and down from 281,000 in June. "The
July employment gain was softer than June, but remains consistent
with a steadily improving job market," said Moody's Analytics'
Mark Zandi.

5. Shares of
SodaStream
surged 10% after the company, which makes at-home
soda brewing units, reported second quarter earnings and revenue
that were better than expected. SodaSteam, however, said it was
lowering its U.S. soda maker sales projections for the second
half of the year.

6. Former Chairman of
the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was in the news today
after saying in an interview on Bloomberg TV that a
"significant" stock market correction has to come. Greenspan
also said that the economy is "running
out of buffer," saying that should a major geopolitical
conflict spring up, our economy doesn't have the resources to
find new potential funding, specifically for the defense
sector.

7. Today marks the
deadline for Argentina to either pay its lenders, which
include
hedge fund manager Paul Singer, or face defaulting on its
debt. As of the market close in New York, the situation remained
unresolved.